The reflections gathered on this page are from Advanced Practitioners (APs) and those in AP type roles who have taken part in the ETF’s AP programme.
The ETF recognises the significance of the role of APs in improving the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in the Further Education and Training sector. The AP programme has evolved over time and a number of innovative and exciting CPD opportunities have taken place, including communities of practice, training programmes, conferences and more.
The reflective accounts we have gathered from participants of the programme, allow APs to tell their own stories about how they are bringing about change within themselves, colleagues and their organisations. These powerful accounts offer a range of valuable insights into how to effectively embody this important role.
These reflections are also available as a ‘AP Reflections guide’, part of the Education and Training Foundation’s wider APToolkit. We’ve also included a Padlet so you don’t miss out on the Reflective accounts that are still coming in.
APs have been the driving force in their organisations moving away from deficit models of one-to-one and towards more collegiate peer approaches and intentional practices of care.
Quality Improvement Manager, East Riding of Yorkshire Council Employment, Education and Skills Team
Beata looks back and reflects on the journey taken by East Riding since they recruited Advanced Practitioners through their #APConnect project in 2018/19.
Quality Improvement Officer/Teacher Trainer, Norfolk County Council
Dorothy’s end of programme reflection on taking part in Constellation C+ as part of #APConnect. She describes the knowledge and skills related to coaching she has gained through engagement in the project and how she has used these new skills to coach her colleagues to be reflective practitioners who develop ther own practice in order to improve the learner experience.
Teaching, Learning and Assessment Manager at Derwentside College
A Fairy Tale to Reflect the Constellations
Helen takes her inspiration from the #APConnect Conference: Spark(l)ing Constellations and tells a story of her journey through #APConnect, as she works with the townsfolk to develop their digital skills to overcome the evil villain COVID’s plans to eradicate learning for FE students.
BEATA BARKER
DOROTHY BRAIDWOOD
HELEN BRENNAN
This function has seen the biggest change, towards communities of practice which have had a real impact in the past year. Quality remains at the heart of this transformation, which has focused on encouraging staff to innovate their own practice.
Advanced Practitioner, Bolton College
‘Good to Great Project’ Angela Murray interviews Alison Loughnane, discussing their third cohort of teachers taking part in their ‘Good to Great’ collaborative project which started in 2018/19 and is still thriving now in 2021.
Teaching and Learning Manager, City of Bristol College
‘5 reasons why CPD is more important during Covid’ Getting involved with CPD and conference planning provided this teacher with a positive
focus in a challenging year. (TES, 15-02-21).
PDN Lead/Trainer/Mentor, Claire Collins Consultancy
‘Professional Development North & the heroes journey aka #APConnect end of programme reflection’
Chloe’s reflection on her journey of development is ‘based on a narratology principle of the ‘heroes journey’, a monomyth used to describe a story of adventure, crisis and transformation.’
Teaching and Learning Manager for Maths and Science, Birmingham Adult Education Service
‘My #APConnect Journey’ A videoscribe (2 mins:32 secs) created by Marsida Horeshka reflecting on her experiences over the past three years of participating in the Education and Training Foundation’s #APConnect programme.
A blog by Marsida as she reflects on her experiences of participating in #APConnect over the past two years. She delves into the impact participating has had on her professional and personal practice including an exploration of the massive difference her maths workplace project has had on adult learners. She shares her ambitions for the third year of the programme.
Professional Development Lead, Leicestershire County Council
Sarabjit reflects on designing and facilitating professional learning, video observations and the development of teacher reflection and self-efficacy. Included is a practical guide ‘ Video Capture for Self-Reflection’ which she produced for the #APConnect module ‘Using Developmental Observations’ based on her experiences of rolling out a pilot as well as a review of the research underpinning this topic.
Advanced Practitioner, Oldham College
Stacey shares her reflections about discovering the #APCommunity in March 2020. She explains how her #APConnect project dovetails with a Greater Manchester Digital & Blended Learning project which involves researching what works, where and in which contexts for teachers at Oldham College in online teaching and learning. Stacey cohosts the podcast, Let’s Get Digital FE.
Advanced Practitioner/English Practitioner, Oldham College/Cambridge Regional College
‘Thinkpiece: To engage or not engage – the big CPD question’
Hollie and Stacey explore what makes an effective CPD session and discuss the concept of ‘practising what you preach’ in order to facilitate engaging professional development sessions.
Teaching and Learning Coach, Myerscough College
Susanna shared her reflections on her personal journey on the #APConnect programme, as well as a range of topics: developing digital skills, creating a newsletter, undertaking action research and using the Thinking Environment.
Advanced Practitioner at The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London
The Application of the Thinking Environment:
Amanda talks to Lou Mycroft about how introducing the Thinking Environment to team meetings has changed the way that the team communicate with one another, fostering and boosting equality in the department and allowing those who are usually silent to speak up and share their amazing ideas.
ANGELA MURRAY
AMY WOODROW
CHLOE HYNES
MARSIDA HORESHKA
SARABJIT BORRILL
STACEY SALT
STACEY SALT AND HOLLIE BARNES
SUSANNA BRANDON
NYIKA SUTTIE
AMANDA SMITH
KAREN GOWLETT AND MICHELLE WAKELING
Advanced Practitioners are experienced coach-mentors and this year’s innovation has focused on bringing colleagues into co-coaching thinking spaces such as Ideas Rooms. This approach has generated spirited articles in the public domain.
Advanced Practitioner, Hopwood Hall College
Alison shares her reflections on her personal journey on the #APConnect programme and the rich outcomes of the College’s collaborative project, from Good to Great, with Bolton College. During the project teachers whose TLA practice had been consistently good for at least two
years across both colleges formed communities of practice and worked in professional learning squares, alongside Advanced Practitioners, to improve their practice further.
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Advanced Practitioner/Advanced Practitioner and Supported Internship Tutor, Oldham College
#ukfechat on Coaching and Mentoring: A collage of Tweets from #ukfechat, hosted by Eve and Sally with a focus on coaching and mentoring.
English Practitioner, Cambridge Regional College
‘My Tools for Unlocking Engagement in English (Pt 1)’ An account of the findings of Hollie’s Action Research studies where she specifically explored strategies and tools for motivation and engagement in GCSE resit learners.
Teaching and Learning Coach, Solihull College
‘Reflective Ed: Adventures in Podcasting – Reflecting on #IdeasRooms in college’ Thinking and reflections around teaching, learning and development in further education and beyond, a reflection on the concept of #Ideasrooms and bringing this to Solihull College.
Teaching and Learning Quality Lead, Chesterfield College
‘Wellbeing Feature’ An account of reflections on past approaches to student wellbeing in the further education sector and shared actions taken to support students to develop their social purpose through collaboration and shared best practice amongst practitioners.
Post 14 FE and Skills Lecturer, University of Derby
‘They say it takes a village…’ A summary of responses from the #APConnect, #JoyFE and Twitter community to a survey on the current and longer term issues in Initial Teacher Education across the education sector, including solutions and opportunities which have arisen from the current challenges around teacher training in COVID times.
LAURA KAYES, Advanced Practitioner, Luminate Education Group
A collection of articles written by Laura Kayes, including ‘Let’s all celebrate our little triumphs in lockdown’, ‘The 10 commandments of remote CPD’, ‘The teaching moments when time stands still’ and ‘Teacher me can deal with anything, but the real me…’
Advanced Practitioner in Technology Enhanced Learning, Leeds City College
Sammy reflects on developing engaging pedagogy online during the pandemic and tells us about the exploration and changes made to her own practice using theory, as well as the importance of building relationships with her (maths) learners to create effective conditions for learning. Two blogs are also included capturing Sammy’s ideas on how teachers can be supported through digital tools such as Flipgird and Wakelet to capture and reflect on their teaching, and in the second how communities of practice play a pivotal role in the new normal.
Advanced Practitioner, Oldham College
‘Thanks to Twitter, I thrived as teacher last year’ Since connecting with other advanced practitioners on Twitter, Stacey Salt says she is
empowered, inspired and grateful. (TES, 19-01-21).
ALISON LOUGHNANE
EVE SHEPPARD AND SALLY GREEN
HOLLIE BARNES
ISLA FLOOD
JAMIE PARTINGTON
KAYTE HASELGROVE
LAURA KAYES
SAMMY WHITE
STACEY SALT
In a year of emergency, balancing strategic objectives with day-today operations has been the central challenge of every organisation. These accounts show how culture change is possible even in the most challenging times.
Teaching, Learning and Assessment Coach, Newcastle College
A reflective account on Ali’s project on improving engagement in English and maths for apprentices as part of the #APConnect Constellation. Ali describes how they increased attendance and achievement through a 12-week programme for English and maths, using a consolidated and consistent approach to the delivery of the qualifications.
Quality Improvement Manager, East Riding of Yorkshire Council Employment, Education and Skills Team
Beata Barker and team reflect on their three year journey as members of #APConnect. Starting in 2018/19 when they were successful in a bid (alongside another provider) for an AP project around collaborative practice in teaching and learning, they begun to apply the Thinking Environment to improve their methods of communication. Their journey then developed in to an English and maths based project in 2019/20 and ended in a project on supporting virtual delivery in 2020/21.
Training, Mentoring and Education Consultant, Real Time Education
Lynne Taylerson, a member of the #APConnect programme team, created a Wakelet to capture the Twitter activity generated by #APConnect participants who joined the Constellation Bs Reconnections Day (15-01-21).
Quality Manager and Deputy Safeguarding Lead, Halesowen College
Haroon Bashir reflects on how #APConnect has provided a vehicle to investigate and develop anti-racism professional development for his College – fully supported by senior managers and delivered to staff.
Professional Development Manager, North Hertfordshire College
Kate reflects on exploring how her #APConnect project changed from a literacy focus to designing and leading staff development days across the College. She examines how sessions were created to facilitate safe spaces for teachers to reflect on how far they’d come, celebrating successes and co-defining what success looks like as they move forward in this a world of online teaching and learning.
Teaching and Learning Quality Lead Coordinator, Chesterfield College
Matt shares his reflections on his personal journey on the #APConnect programme and outlines the College’s project on innovative ways of driving teaching & learning forward through peer collaborative triangles and communities of practice.
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Advanced Practitioner, Calderdale College
Pam reflects on the need for a joint approach between subject teams and English teams, to further enhance the relevance and buy-in of learners into their English resit qualifications. Pam explores approaches to English skill development as well as the importance of communication and collaboration of teaching teams.
Additional Support Tutor, University College Birmingham
Extra Support: Making a difference to those in need is the motivation for FE support tutor, Saj Mohammad. Read about his journey from studying sound engineering to becoming a support tutor and his passion for supporting students to develop their English skills at a variety of levels. (Intuition, page 38, 01-03-21).
English Lecturer, Reaseheath College
Sophie discusses how her #APConnect project has enabled her English team to examine how online delivery can be a powerful experience for her GCSE resit learners. She compares her English team’s experiences of adapting online to that of the math’s team. In the process she unearths deep insights drawn from her team’s evolving practice on the ground, and informed by learner feedback.
Teaching, Learning and Innovation Coach at Newham College
Reflection of #APConnect Communities of Practice Programme:
Tracy tells the story of a project which aimed to improve the quality of formative, developmental and constructive feedback to support learners in self-correction of written work and how taking part in #APConnect contributed to the development of this project.
ALISON RUDMAN
BEATA BARKER AND TEAM
DR. LYNNE TAYLERSON
HAROON BASHIR
KATE MACKINTOSH
MATT PEARSON
PAMELA DALE
SAJ MOHAMMAD
SOPHIE SMITHDALE
HAYLEY SEWARD
KAYTE HASELGROVE
TRACY SERAPIN
These reflections demonstrate the powerful ‘whole’ of the AP role, where AP teams are working as a unit to drive both quality and wellbeing in a practice of care. Here you will get a sense of how great the shift has been, given the opportunities provided by a turbulent year.
Teacher Educators, Northern College
‘The Future of Education’ In February 2021 colleagues Ali and Helen met as part of the #APConnect Constellations to talk about the work they’d been doing around social purpose and education. This article is drawn from the transcript of that meeting.
Teacher Educator, Oxfordshire Adult Learning at Abington and Witney College
Audrey describes her experience with #APConnect Constellations in an interview with Dorothy Braidwood. Firstly engaging in the Communities of Practice in Year 1, then Developing APs programme in Year 2 and finally, how her interactions on Slack in Year 3 have influenced her practice.
Teaching and Learning Quality Lead, Chesterfield College
‘HIVE’ A poetic reflection on Constellation B by Bridlyb.
Training, Mentoring and Education Consultant, Real Time Education
‘Joy in a Cold Climate: Reflections on #APConnect 2020-21’ A blog piece written as a contribution to this year’s #APConnect collection of Reflective Accounts. Lynne’s role in the programme is as ‘digital nurse’, event facilitator and online space designer for Constellation B. she draws on observations and reflections from participating in Advanced Practitioner (AP) conference days, weekly Thinking Environments and
Ideas Rooms and as a result of contributing to the Evaluation Circles and Slack dialogues.
English Practitioner and Advanced Practitioner In Technology, Enhanced Learning, Cambridge Regional College & Leeds City College
‘English & Maths Booth’: Hosted by Hollie Barnes, English specialist and Sammy White, Maths expert and IT guru. A podcast by teachers, for teachers within the Further Education sector. Discussing real, day-to-day experiences, trials and tribulations and what life is like teaching E&M in the Post 16 sector.
Teaching and Learning Coach, Solihull College
‘FE and Educational; Podcasts’ An excellent collection of FE podcasts collated and presented by Isla, for your perusal. Isla will keep adding to these so you have a one stop shop!
Advanced Practitioner, Waltham Forest College
Matt shares his reflections on his personal journey on the #APConnect programme and outlines the project he engaged with, collaborating with colleagues from other colleges in creating webinars for one another’s English groups to aid teaching online and to target those harder to reach students.
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Technical Lecturer, Hereford Sixth Form College
(with Beth Curtis and Will Cossey)
‘Hope: Don’t Stop Me Now. The unexpected joy of practitioner research and why now we’ve started, we just can’t stop.’ Three accounts of journeys of practitioner research in Further Education.
Advanced Practitioner, Calderdale College
‘Reflecting on # AP Connect 2020 – 2021: A Community of Collaboration and Joy’ Pam’s moving reflections on her experience engaging in Constellation B, how it has changed her practice and had a ‘momentous impact upon [her] vision of [herself] and the way [she] perceived [her] role as an Advanced Practitioner.’
Advanced Practitioner in Technology Enhanced Learning, Leeds City College
Through APConnect, Sammy began to identify herself as an adult education tutor and this led her to the #AdultConversations campaign. ‘My maths and ed tech merry-go-round!’ is a reflection on the challenges of welcoming adult learners back to the classroom and introducing them to a new world of education including apps, websites and ed tech.
Scholarship and Enterprise Development Manager, Hereford College of Arts
A digital collage created by Sarah-Jane Crowson on behalf of attendees at the Midlands regional AP Network – Dec 2020. The words and images represent reflections of a turbulent Autumn 2020 term.
English Lecturer and Advanced Practitioner, Reaseheath College & Calderdale College
An interview with two advanced practitioners whose lives have changed dramatically through their engagement in the #APConnect programme. Read about their individual realisations regarding the meaning of being ‘agents of change’ and the concept of ‘amplifying their voices’ which have unleashed confidence and an eagerness to challenge and innovate in these practitioners.
Advanced Practitioners, Oldham College & Oldham College
‘A year of Covid: We’ve all been doing the hokey cokey’ During Covid colleges have been in, out and shaken all about – but we’ve learned a lot, say two advanced practitioners.
Advanced Practitioner, Oldham College & Oldham College
‘Let’s Get Digital FE’ podcast. Two curious FE teachers from Oldham College chat to staff about the fantastic work they have been doing in blended and digital learning. Practical tips on how to get online learning to work in FE, including: ‘The Power of YouTube’, ‘Saving time with digital literacy’, ‘Plumbing and gas – a digital success story’ and ‘Flipping the Access to HE classroom’.
Teaching and Learning Coaches, North Hertfordshire College
‘Connecting FE – APConnect Reflections’ Discussions, chat and sharing good practice. Open and honest conversation about life in the FE sector.
Aleks House, Teaching Learning and Development Manager at Leeds City College
ALISON LONGDEN & HELEN HAZLEHURST
AUDREY FAIRGRIEVE
BRIDGET BIRCUMSHAW
DR LYNNE TAYLERSON
HOLLIE BARNES & SAMMY WHITE
ISLA FLOOD
MATT GORDON
OLIVER CAMERON-SWAN
PAMELA DALE
SAMMY WHITE
SARAH-JANE CROWSON
SOPHIE SMITHDALE & PAMELA DALE
STACEY SALT & EVE SHEPPARD
STACEY SALT & EVE SHEPPARD
VICKY LANG AND JODIE COLLINS
JULIE SMITH
SARAH DOWNING
SOPHIE SMITH AND PAMELA DALE
ALEKS HOUSE
Roy Turpin, Advanced Practitioner at Leeds College of Building
AP (Constellation B) Reflective Account
ROY TURPIN